Natus Maij 29. Anᵒ 1630. Aetatis Suae 19   

THE preeminence AND PEDIGREE OF parliament.  
Whereunto is added A Vindication of some Passages reflecting upon the Author, In a book called The Popish royal favourite, penned and Published by Mr. Prynne; wherein he styles him, No friend to parliaments, and a Malignant, Pag. 42.  
With a clearing of some Occurrences in Spain at His majesty's being there, cited by the said Master Prynne out of the Vocal Forest.  
By J. H. Esq One of the Clerks of His majesty's most honourable privy-council.  
Published by special Order.  
London Printed by W. W. for Humphrey Moseley, 1649.   

TO My worthily honoured friend, Sir W. S. Knight.  
SIR,  
I Have many thanks to give you for the Book you pleased to send me, called The Popish royal favourite; and according to your advice (which I value in a high degree) I put Pen to Paper, and some thing you may see I have done (though in a poor Pamphleting way) to clear myself of those aspersions that are cast upon me therein. But truly Sir, I was never so unfit for such a task; all my papers, Manuscripts, and Notes, having been long since seized upon and kept from me. Add hereunto, that besides this long pressure and languishment of twenty three months close restraint (the sense whereof, I find hath much stupefied my spirits) it pleased God to visit me lately with a dangerous fit of sickness, a high burning Fever, with the new Disease, whereof my Body as well as my Mind, is yet somewhat crazy: So that (take all afflictions together) I may truly say, I have passed the Ordeal, the fiery trial. But it hath pleased God to reprieve me to see better days I hope; for out of this fatal black Cloud, which now oresets this poor Island, I hope there will break a glorious sunshine of peace and firm happiness: To effect which, had I a Jury, a Grand-Jury of lives, I would sacrifice them all, and triumph in the oblation.  
So I most affectionately kiss your hands, and rest  
From the Prison of the Fleet. Your faithful (though afflicted) Servant, J. H.   

The preeminence of parliament.  

Sectio Prima.  
I Am a freeborn Subject of the Realm of England; whereby I claim as my native Inheritance, an undoubted right, propriety, and portion in the Laws of the Land: And this distinguisheth me from a Slave. I claim also an interest and common right in the High National Court of parliament, and in the Power, the privileges and Jurisdiction thereof, which I put in equal balance with the Laws, in regard it is the Fountain whence they spring: And this I hold also to be a principal part of my birthright; which great council I honour, respect, value, and love in as high a degree as can be; as being the Bulwark of our Liberties, the main boundary and bank which keep us from slavery, from the inundations of tyrannical Rule, and unbounded Wil-government. And I hold myself obliged in a tye of indispensable obedience to conform and submit myself to whatsoever shall be transacted, concluded, and constituted by its authority in Church or State; whether it be by making, enlarging, altering, diminishing, disannulling, repealing, or reviving of any Law, Statute, Act, or Ordinance whatsoever, either touching matters ecclesiastical, Civil, Common, Capital, Criminal, Martial, Maritine, Municipal, or any other; of all which, the transcendent and uncontrollable Jurisdiction of that Court is capable to take cognizance.  
Amongst the three things which the Athenian Captain thanked the gods for, one was, That he was born a Grecian, and not a Barbarian. For such was the vanity of the Greeks, and after them of the Romans, in the flourish of their Monarchy, to arrogate all civility to themselves, and to term all the world besides Barbarians: So I may say to have cause to rejoice, that I was born a vassal to the Crown of England; that I was born under so well moulded and tempered a Government, which indows the Subject with such Liberties and enfranchisements that bear up his natural courage, and keep him still in heart; such Liberties that fence and secure him eternally from the gripes and talons of Tyranny: And all this may be imputed to the Authority and Wisdom of this High Court of parliament, wherein there is such a rare co ordination of power (though the sovereignty remain still entire, and untransferable in the person of the Prince) there is, I say, such a wholesome mixture twixt Monarchy, Optimacy, and Democracy; twixt Prince, Peers, and communality, during the time of consultation, that of so many distinct parts, by a rare cooperation and unanimity, they make but one Body Politic, (like that Sheaf of Arrows in the Emblem) one entire concentrical piece; and the results of their deliberations, but as so many harmonious diapasons arising from different strings. And what greater immunity and happiness can there be to a people, than to be liable to no Laws but what they make themselves? To be subject to no Contribution, assessment, or any pecuniary levy whatsoever, but what they Vote, and voluntarily yield unto themselves? For in this compacted Politic Body, there be all degrees of people represented; both the mechanic, Tradesman, Merchant, and Yeoman, have their inclusive Vote, as well as the Gentry, in the persons of their trusties, their Knights and Burgesses, in passing of all things. Nor is this sovereign Surintendent council an Epitome of this Kingdom only, but it may be said to have a representation of the whole Universe; as I heard a fluent well-worded Knight deliver the last parliament, who compared the beautiful composure of that High Court, to the great work of God, the World itself: The King to the Sun, the Nobles to the fixed Stars, the Itinerant Judges and other Officers (that go upon Messages 'twixt both Houses) to the Panets; the Clergy to the Element of fire; the Commons, to the solid Body of Earth, and the rest of the Elements. And to pursue this comparison a little farther; as the heavenly Bodies, when three of them meet in Conjunction, do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World: So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemn great Junto, some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth, tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom, our Microcosm.  
HE that is never so little versed in the Annales of this Isle, will find that it hath been her fate to be sour times conquered. I exclude the Scot; for the situation of his country, and the quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him, that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither, for fear of Freezing their Wings; nor any other Nation attempt the work.  
These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings, many disturbances and changes in Government; yet I have observed, that notwithstanding these tumblings, it retained still the form of a Monarchy, and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly the parliament.  
The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar; at which time (as some well observe) the Roman Ensigns and the Standard of Christ came in together. It is well known what Laws the Roman had; He had his Comitia, which bore a resemblance with our Convention in parliament; the place of their meetings was called Praetorium, and the Laws which they enacted, Plebiscita.  
The Saxon Conquest succeeded next, which were the English, there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an Englishman, but Saxon, to this day. They governed by parliament, though it were under other names; as Michael Sinoth, Michael Gemote, and Witenage Mote.  
There are Records above a thousand years old, of these parliaments, in the reigns of King Ina, Offa, Ethelbert, and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy. The British Kings also, who retained a great while some part of the Isle unconquered, governed and made Laws by a kind of parliamentary way; witness the famous Laws of Prince Howel, called Howel Dha, (the good Prince Howel) whereof there are yet extant some Welsh Records. parliaments were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus, Alphred, and others; witness that renowned parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan.  
The third Conquest was by the Danes, and they governed also by such general Assemblies, (as they do to this day) witness that great and so much celebrated parliament held by that mighty Monarch Canutus, who was King of England, Denmark, Norway, and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta; and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialest, and most authentic pieces of Antiquity we have extant. Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus, (and he was a great Legis-lator) which the Norman conqueror (who liking none of his sons, made God Almighty his heir, bequeathing unto him this Island for a Legacy) did ratify and establish, and digested them into one entire methodical system, which being violated by Rufus, (who came to such a disastrous end, as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacrileges) were restored by Henry the first, and so they continued in force till King John, whose reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta, the foundation of our Liberties ever since: Which may be compared to divers Outlandish Graffs set upon one English stock, or to a posy of sundry fragrant Flowers; for the choicest of the British, the Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman Laws, being culled and picked out, and gathered as it were into one bundle, out of them the foresaid grand Charter was extracted: And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a parliament.  
Nor are the Laws of this Island only, and the freedom of the Subject conserved by parliament, but all the best policed countries of Europe have the like. The Germans have their Diets, the Danes and Swedes the Riicks' Dachs; the Spaniard calls his parliament Las Cortes, and the French have (or should have at least) their Assembly of three States, though it be grown now in a manner obsolete, because the Authority thereof was (by accident) devolved to the King And very remarkable it is, how this happened; forwhen the English had taken such large sooting in most parts of France, having advanced as far as Orleans, and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry: the Assembly of the three States in these pressures, being not able to meet after the usual manner in full parliament, because the Country was unpassable the enemy having made such firm invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom; that power which formerly was inherent in the parliamentary Assembly, of making Laws, of assessing the Subject with Taxes, subsidiary levies, and other impositions, was transmitted to the King during the war; which continuing many years, that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him, and could never after be reassumed and taken from him; so that ever since, his Edicts countervail Acts of parliament. And that which made the business more seasable for the King, was, that the burden fell most upon the communality (the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it) who were willing to see the peasant pulled down a little, because not many years before in that notable Rebellion, called La jaquery de Beauvoisin, which was suppressed by Charles the wise, the common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry, to lessen their power. Add hereunto as an advantage to the work, that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh, was a close cunning Prince, and could well tell how to play his game, and draw water to his own Mill; For amongst all the rest, he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France, horse de page, out of their minority, or from being Pages any more, though thereby he brought the poor peasants to be worse than lackeys.  
With the fall, or at least the discontinuance, of that usual parliamentary Assembly of the three States, the liberty of the French Nation utterly fell; the poor Roturier and Vineyard-man, with the rest of the Yeomanry, being reduced ever since to such an abject asinine condition, that they serve but as sponges for the King to squeeze when he list. nevertheless, as that King hath an advantage hereby one way, to monarchize more absolutely, and never to want money, but to ballast his Purse when he will: so there is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way; for this illegal peeling of the poor peasant hath so dejected him, and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty (which brings along with it a narrowness of soul) that he is little useful for the war: which puts the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him, to fill up his Infantry: Insomuch, that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all its blood drawn up into the Arms, breast and Back, and scarce any left from the Girdle downwards, to cherish and bear up the lower parts, and keep them from starving.  
All this seriously considered, there cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours, to prove how infinitely necessary the parliament is, to assert, to prop up, and preserve the Public Liberty, and National Rights of a people, with the incolumity and welfare of a country.  
Nor doth the Subject only reap benefit thus by parliament, but the Prince (if it be well considered) hath equal advantage thereby; It rendereth him a King of free and able men, which is far more glorious than to be a King of Slaves, beggars, and Bankrupts Men that by their freedom, and competency of 〈◊〉 are kept still in heart to do him service against any foreign force. And it is a true maxim in all States, that 'tis less danger and dishonour for the Prince to be poor, than his people: Rich Subjects can make their King rich when they please; if he gain their hearts, he will quickly get their purses: parliament increaseth love and good intelligence 'twixt him and his people; it acquaints him with the reality of things, and with the true state and diseases of his kingdom; it brings him to the knowledge of his better sort of Subjects, and of their abilities, which he may employ accordingly upon all occasions; it provides for his royal Issue, pays his debts, finds means to fill his Coffers: And it is no ill observation, The parlementary-monies (the great Aid) have prospered best with the Kings of England; it exceedingly raiseth his repute abroad, and enableth him to keep his foes in fear, his Subjects in awe, his Neighbours and Confederates in security, the three main things which go to aggrandise a Prince, and render him glorious. In sum, it is the parliament that supports, and bears up the honour of his Crown, and settles his Throne in safety, which is the chief end of all their consultations; For whosoever is entrusted to be a Member of this High Court, carrieth with him a double capacity; he fits there as a Patriot, and as a Subject: As he is the one, the country is his object, his duty being to vindicate the public Liberty, to make wholesome Laws, to put his hand to the pump, and stop the leaks of the great vessel of the State: to pry into and punish corruption and oppression, to improve and advance trade, to have the grievances of the place he serves for redressed, and cast about how to find something that may tend to the advantage of it.  
But he must not forget that he sits there also as a S●●●●ct, and according to that capacity, he must apply himse●● to do his sovereign's business, to provide not only ●●r his public, but his personal wants; to bear up the lustre and glory of his Court; to consider what occasions of extraordinary expenses he may have, by increase of royal Issue, or maintenance of any of them abroad; to enable him to vindicate any affront or indignity that might be offered to his Person, Crown, or Dignity, by any foreign State or Kingdom; to consult what may enlarge his honour, contentment and pleasure. And as the French Tacitus (Comines) hath it, the English Nation was used to be more forward and zealous in this particular than any other, according to that ancient eloquent speech of a great Lawyers, Domus Regis vigilia defendit omnium, otium illius labour omnium, deliciae illius industria omnium, vacatio illius occupatio omnium▪ salus illius periculum omnium, honor illius objectum omnium. Every one should stand sentinel to defend the King's Houses, his safety should be the danger of all, his pleasures the industry of all, his ease should be the labour of all, his honour the object of all.  
Out of these premises this conclusion may be easily deduced, that, The principal Founntain whence the King derives his happiness and safety, is his parliament: It is that great Conduit-Pipe which conveys unto him his people's bounty and gratitude; the truest lookingglass wherein he discerns their loves; now the Subjects love hath been always accounted the prime citadel of a Prince. In his parliament he appears as the Sun in the Meridian, in the altitude of his glory, in his highest State Royal, as the Law tells us.  
Therefore whosoever is avers or disaffected to this sovereign Law making Court, cannot have his heart well planted within him: He can be neither good Subject, nor good Patriot; and therefore unworthy to breathe English air, or have any benefit, advantage, or protection from the Laws.   

Sectio Secunda.  
BY that which hath been spoken, which is the language of my heart, I hope no indifferent judicious Reader will doubt of the cordial affection, of the high respects and due reverence I bear to parliament, as being the wholsomest constitution (and done by the highest and happiest reach of policy) that ever was established in this Island, to perpetuate the happiness thereof: therefore I must tell that Gentleman who was Author of a Book entitled The Popish royal favourite, (lately Printed and exposed to the world) that he offers me very hard measure; nay, he doth me apparent wrong, to term me therein No friend to parliament, and a Malignant; A character, which as I deserve it not, so I disdain it.  
For the first part of his charge, I would have him know, that I am as much a friend, and as real an affectionate humble servant & votary to the parliament, as possibly he can be, and will live and die with these affections about me: And I could wish, that he were Secretary of my thoughts a while; or if I may take the boldness to apply that comparison His late majesty used in a famous speech to one of his parliaments, I could wish there were a crystal window in my breast, through which the world might espy the inward motions and palpitations of my heart; then would he be certified of the sincerity of this protestation.  
For the second part of his charge, to be a Malignant, I must confess to have some Malignity that lurks within me, much against my will, but it is no malignity of mind, it is amongst the humours, not in my intellectuals. And I believe, there is no natural man, let him have his humours never so well balanced, but hath some of this malignity reigning within him; For as long as we are composed of the four Elements, whence these humours are derived, and with whom they symbolize in qualities; which Elements the Philosophers hold to be in a restless contention amongst themselves (and the Stoic thought that the world subsisted by this innate mutual strife) as long, I say, as the four humours, in imitation of their principles (the Elements) are in perpetual reluctancy and combat for praedominancy, there must be some malignity lodged within us, as adusted choler, and the like; whereof I had late experience in a dangerous fit of sickness it pleased God to lay upon me, which the physicians told me proceeded from the malignant hypocondriacal effects of melancholy; having been so long in this Saturnine black condition of close imprisonment, and buried a live between the walls of this fatal Fleet. These kinds of malignities, I confess are very rife in me, and they are not only incident, but connatural to every man according to his complexion: And were it not for this incessant struggling and enmity amongst the humours for mastery, which produceth such malignant effects in us, our souls would be loath ever to depart from our bodies, or to abandon this mansion of clay.  
Now what malignity my Accuser means, I know not; if he means malignity of spirit, as some antipathy or ill impression upon the mind, arising from disaffection, hatred, or rancour, with a desire of some destructive revenge, he is mightily deceived in me; I malign or hate no Creature that ever God made, but the devil, who is the Author of all malignity; and therefore is most commonly called in French le Malin Asprit the malignant spirit. Every night before I go to bed, I have the grace, I thank God for it, to forgive all the world, and not to harbour, or let roost in my bosom the least malignant thought; yet none can deny, but the aspersions which this my Accuser casts upon me, were enough to make me a malignant towards him; yet it could never have the power to do it: For I have prevailed with myself to forgive him this his wrong censure of me, issuing rather from his not-knowledge of me, than from malice; for we never mingled speech, or saw one another in our lives, to my remembrance: which makes me wonder the more, that a Professor of the Law, as he is, should pronounce such a positive sentence against me so slightly. But methinks I overhear him say, That the precedent discourse of parliament is involved in generals, and the topic Axiom tells us, that Dolus versatur in universalibus, there is double dealing in universals: His meaning is, that I am no friend to this present parliament (though he speaks in the plural number parliaments) and consequently, he concludes me a Malignant. therein, I must tell him also, that I am traduced, and I am confident it will be never proved against me, from any Actions, words, or letters (though divers of mine have been intercepted) or any other misdemeanour, though some things are fathered upon me which never dropped from my Quill. Alas, how unworthy and uncapable am I to censure the proceedings of that great Senate, that high Synedrion, wherein the wisdom of the whole State is epitomised? It were a presumption in me, of the highest nature that could be: It is enough for me to pray for the prosperous success of their consultations: And as I hold it my duty, so I have good reason so to do, in regard I am to have my share in the happiness; And could the utmost of my poor endeavours, by any ministerial humble office (and sometimes the meanest Boatswain may help to preserve the Ship from sinking) be so happy, as to contribute any thing to advance that great work (which I am in despair to do, while I am thus under hatches in this Fleet) I would esteem it the greatest honour that possibly could befall me, as I hold it now to be my greatest disaster, to have fallen so heavily under an affliction of this nature, and to be made a sacrifice to public fame, than which there is no other proof, nor that yet urged against me, or any thing else produced after so long, so long captivity, which hath brought me to such a low ebb, and put me so far behind in the course of my poor fortunes, and indeed more than half undone me. For although my whole life (since I was left to myself to swim, as they say, without bladders) has been nothing else but a continued succession of crosses, and that there are but few red letters found (God wot) in the almanac of my Age, (for which I account not myself a whit the less happy;) yet this cross has carried with it a greater weight; it hath been of a larger extent, longer continuance, and lighted heavier upon me than any other; and as I have present patience to bear it, so I hope for subsequent grace to make use of it accordingly, that my old Motto may be still confirmed, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
HE produceth my attestation for some passages in Spain, at His majesty's being there, and he quotes me aright, which obligeth me to him: And I hope all his quotations, wherein he is so extraordinarily copious and elaborate in all his works, are so; yet I must tell him, that those interchangeable Letters which passed between His Majesty and the Pope, which were originally couched in Latin, the language wherein all Nations treat with Rome, and the Empire with all the Princes thereof; those Letters, I say, are adulterated in many places, which I impute not to him, but to the French Chroniclen, from whom he took them in trust. The truth of that business is this: The world knows there was a tedious treaty of an Alliance twixt the Infanta Dona Maria (who now is Empress) and His Majesty, which in regard of the slow affected pace of the Spaniard, lasted about ten years, as that in Henry the seventh's time, twixt Prince Arthur and (afterwards) Queen Katherine, was spun out above seven: To quicken, or rather to consummate the work, His Majesty made that adventurous journey through the whole Continent of France into Spain; which voyage, though there was a great deal of gallantry in it (whereof all posterity will ring, until it turn at last to a Romance) yet it proved the bane of the business, which 'tis not the errand of so poor a Pamphlet as this to unfold. His Majesty being there arrived, the ignorant common people cried out, the Prince of Wales came thither to make himself a Christian. The Pope writ to the Inquisitor General, and others, to use all industry they could to reduce him to the Roman Religion; And one of Olivares first compliments to him, was, That he doubted not but that His highness came thither to change His Religion: whereunto he made a short answer, That he came not thither for a Religion, but for a Wife. there were extraordinary processions made, and other artifices used by protraction of things to make him stay there of purpose till the Spring folllowing, to work upon him the better: And the Infanta herself desired him (which was esteemed the greatest favour he received from her all the while) to visit the Nun of Carion; hoping that the said Nun, who was so much cried up for miracles, might have wrought one upon him; but her art failed her, nor was His highness so weak a subject to work upon, according to His late majesty's speech to Doctor maw and Wren, who when they came to kiss his hands, before they went to Spain to attend the Prince their Master, He wished them to have a care of Buckingham; as touching his Son Charles, he apprehended no fear at all of him; for he knew him to be so well grounded a Protestant, that nothing could shake him in his Religion. The Arabian Proverb is, That the Sun never soils in his passage, though his Beams reverberate never so strongly, and dwell never so long upon the miry lake of Maeotis, the black turfed Moors of Holland, the Aguish Woose of Kent and Essex, or any other place, be it never so dirty. Though Spain be a hot Country, yet one may pass and repass through the very centre of it, and never be sunburnt, if he carry with him a Bongrace, and such a one His Majesty had.  
Well, after His majesty's arrival to Madrid, the treaty of Marriage went on still, (though he told them at his first coming, that he came not thither like an ambassador, to treat of Marriage; but as a Prince, to fetch home a Wife;) and in regard they were of different Religions, it could not be done without a dispensation from the Pope, and the Pope would grant none, unless some Capitulations were stipulated in favour of the Romish Catholics in England, (the same in substance were agreed on with France. Well, when the dispensation came, which was negotiated solely by the King of Spain's Ministers; because His Majesty would have as little to do as might be with Rome, Pope Gregory the fifteenth, who died a little after, sent His Majesty a Letter, which was delivered by the Nuncio, whereof an answer was sent a while after: Which Letters were imprinted and exposed to the view of the world, because His Majesty would not have people whisper, that the business was carried in a clandestine manner. And truly besides this, I do not know of any Letter, or Message, or compliment, that ever passed twixt His Majesty and the Pope, afore or after; some addresses peradventure might be made to the Cardinals, to whom the drawing of those matrimonial dispatches was referred, to quicken the work; but this was only by way of civil negotiation.  
Now touching that Responsory Letter from His Majesty, it was not other than a compliment in the severest interpretation, and such formalities pass twixt the Crown of England, and the great Turk, and divers Heathen Princes. The Pope writ first, and no man can deny, but by all moral rules, and in common human civility His Majesty was bound to answer it, specially considering how punctual they are in those Countries to correspond in this kind, how exact they are in repaying visits, and the performance of such Ceremonies: And had this compliance been omitted, it might have made very ill impressions, as the posture of things stood then; for it had prejudiced the great work in hand, I mean, the Match, which was then in the heat and height of agitation: His majesty's person was there engaged, and so it was no time to give the least offence. They that are never so little versed in business abroad, do know that there must be addresses, compliances, and formalities of this nature (according to the Italian Proverb, That one must sometimes light a candle to the Devil) used in the carriage of matters of State, as this great business was, whereon the eyes of all Christendom were so greedily fixed: A business which was like to bring with it such an universal good, as the restitution of the Palatinate, the quenching of those hideous fires in Germany, and the establishing of a peace through all the Christian World.  
I hope none will take offence, that in this particular which comes within the compass of my knowledge, being upon the Stage when this Scene was acted, I do this right to the King my Master, in displaying the Truth, and putting her forth in her own colours, a rare thing in these days.  
TOuching the Vocal Forest, an allegorical Discourse, that goes abroad under my name, a good while before the beginning of this parliament, which this Gentleman citys (and that very faithfully) I understand there be some that mutter at certain passages therein, by putting ill glosses upon the Text, and taking with the left hand what I offer with the right: (Nor is it a wonder for Trees which lie open, and stand exposed to all weathers, to be nipped) But I desire this favour, which in common justice, I am sure in the Court of Chancery, cannot be denied me, it being the privilege of every Author, and a received maxim through the World, Cujus est condere, ejus est interpretari; I say, I crave this favour, to have leave to expound my own Text, and I doubt not then but to rectify any one in his opinion of me, and that in lieu of the Plums which I give him from those Trees, he will not throw the stones at me.  
Moreover, I desire those that are over critical Censurers of that piece, to know, that as in Divinity it is a rule, Scriptura parabolica non est argumentativa; so it is in all other kind of knowledge, Parables (Whereof that Discourse is composed) though pressed never so hard, prove nothi●g. there is another Rule also, That Parables must be gently used, like a nurse's breast; which if you press too hard, you shall have blood in stead of milk.  
But as the Author of the Vocal Forest thinks he hath done, neither his country, nor the commonwealth of Learning any prejudice thereby; (That maiden fancy having received so good entertainment and respect abroad, as to be translated into divers Languages, and to gain the public approbation of some famous Universities.) So he makes this humble protest unto all the World, that though the design of that discourse was partly satirical (which peradventure induced the Author to shroud it of purpose under the shadows of Trees; and where should satyrs be, but amongst Trees?) yet it never entered into his imagination to let fall from him the least thing that might give any offence to the High and honourable Court of parliament, whereof he had the honour to be once a Member, and hopes he may be thought worthy again: And were he guilty of such an offence, or piacle rather, he thinks he should never forgive himself, though he were appointed his own Judge. If there occur any passage therein, that may admit a hard construction, let the Reader observe, That the Author doth not positively assert, or pass a judgement on any thing in that Discourse which consists principally of concise, cursory narrations of the choicest Occurrences and Criticisms of State, according as the pulse of time did beat then: And matters of State, as al● other sublunary things, are subject to alterations, contingencies and change, which makes the opinions an● minds of men vary accordingly; not one among● twenty is the same man to day as he was four yeer● ago, in point of judgement, which turns and alter● according to the circumstance and success of things▪ And it is a true saying, whereof we find common experience, Posterior dies est prioris Magister. The da● following is the former day's Schoolmaster. Then another Aphorism, The wisdom of one day is foolis●nes to another, and 'twill be so as long as there is man left in the World.  
I will conclude with this modest request to that Gentleman of the long Robe; That having unpassionately perused what I have written in this small Discourse, in penning whereof my conscience guided my quill all along as well as my hand, he would please to be so charitable and just, as to reverse that harsh sentence upon me, To be no friend to parliaments, and a Malignant.   
FINIS.